Clinging to the volcanic wall to our left, several sprigs of green clung to the rock. Curled slender branches, unfurling into tendrils lined on both sides with delicate, oval leaves. They were growing in the near-permanent shadow on the interior of the volcano, desperately grasping at life in this inhospitable place. Beyond the cluster I saw, more grew higher up, just out of reach. In fact, the entire interior of the volcano seemed to be dotted with them.
“Casey?” David asked, confused. I raised a trembling arm to point. David’s jaw dropped open.
“That’s…that’s,” I managed, trailing off weakly. I swallowed. “That’s it.”
As if he were approaching a bird’s nest filled with skittish chicks, David inched closer to the wall. He extended a hand to touch the fern, running his finger along the edge of a leaf like it would dissolve like mirage. It didn’t.
“Casey, you found it.” His voice was full of wonder. He threw his backpack to the ground and rummaged through it until pulling a composition notebook free.
“This journal belonged to Alberto,” he explained, thumbing through it excitedly. “He has a sketch of the live plant in here.”
We looked at the journal together. Alberto, David’s deceased friend who had set us all on this journey, had drawn the fern with incredible detail and care. It was a perfect match to the plant growing on the wall.
“There’s one way to be absolutely sure,” I said.
David nodded, picking two of the delicate leaves and handing one to me. “Ready?”
We tasted it together.
Unlike the tea, or the dried piece of herb that David had given me months ago in the studio of Forgotten Extraterrestrials, this taste hit me like a freight train. It was a wild cascade of flavors: sweet, salty, savory, sour, hot. One after another, each stronger and more intense than the last. I’ve heard of advertisers describing various snack foods as ‘flavor explosions’ but no Cheeto I’d ever had could really boast that superlative. This could. It was more like a full-blown firework display than a mere explosion. This was a flavor jubilee.
“Wow.” I was not eloquent at the moment, but I hardly needed to be. Our eyes met.
We were in one another’s arms in an instant, and David’s mouth slanted over mine a heartbeat later. His tongue pushed and stroked against mine in a frenzy. It was the kiss of a lifetime: deep, tender, and intimate. His hands were tight around my waist, and still I felt like we were too far apart. We held one another closer, and I buried my hands in his hair. It was worth it, all the danger and the travel. The fear. All of the insanity of the past few days. It was all worth it for this crazy kiss, from this crazy man, in this crazy place.
“We did it. We really fucking did it,” David said, looking as stunned as he was delighted. It was a few seconds before I was even able to reply.
“It grows on the inside of the volcano,” I said. “That’s why nobody could ever find it on the outside of the slopes. The sulfur and the heat from the volcano, it must be part of what the plant needs to survive.”
David nodded. “We probably never would have found it if we hadn’t run into Alicia and her crew.”
“And look how much there is,” I said, gesturing to the walls around us. The plant was growing in abundance on the walls of the volcano. It would be impossible to access it if not for this path. Whoever built this path must have known that the plant grew freely down here. There was no other reason to construct such a walkway.
David was reading again from the journal. “We need to collect the spores of the fire-leaf,” he said. “We’re looking for a plant that’s fertile. Ready to drop spores. They’re little red-orange dots on the undersides of the leaves.”
It didn’t take long before we found a suitable specimen. David picked the fronds carefully and pressed them between the pages of the journal itself.
“So, we don’t need the whole plant?”
“We want that too,” he said, collecting a few from the nooks and crags of the rocks. “But it’s really the spores that are the key.”
“David,” I said as we looked at one another in a victory that still felt completely unreal. “We did it. We found your magic fucking fern.”
36
David
After picking as much of the fire-leaf fern as we could reach, we followed the pathway upwards, praying that it would spit us out on top of the volcano. Neither one of us wanted to discuss what would happen if the path abruptly ended or led us back into the caves. Thankfully, we emerged onto the slope no more than twenty minutes later, finding ourselves with a panoramic sunset view of the entire island.
From this highest point, we could see everything for almost three hundred and sixty degrees. It was a beautiful watercolor sunset. Until we looked east.
The dark leading edge of the storm was approaching the island like a wall of glacier. The distant rain made the storm look nearly solid as it travelled toward us. Above, the sky swirled. Below, the sea boiled. Looking at the coming disaster, I felt like we might have celebrated our victory prematurely.
It was as we were deciding what to do next that I saw the trip’s first monkey.
“Look,” I hissed in Casey’s ear, pointing down the path about thirty feet.
He wasn’t a huge monkey, but still relatively substantial. Maybe a foot and a half tall, he (or perhaps she) had a long tail and a reddish-brown coat. At first, for a split second, I thought he was a cat, but a second look proved that it was very much a revolting primate and not a cuddly feline companion. His face was pinkish white with a strange mustache of grey hair and long whiskers growing from his cheeks. He was sitting in the middle of the path ahead of us, just chilling and enjoying the evening. And he was absolutely hideous.
“Oh, he’s so cute!” Casey squealed, before remembering my aversion to all things ape-related. “Oops. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I stooped and picked up a rock, but she put a hand on my wrist.
“What are you doing?” She looked horrified.
“I’m not going to purposefully hit him,” I told her defensively. “Just scare him away. You know, so we can walk down.”
She frowned at me. “Is that necessary? Why don’t we just walk over there. He’ll probably run away.”
“I’m not getting any closer.”
“Ok, I’ll do it.” She took the rock from my hand and put it pointedly back on the ground.
The conversation proved pointless, because the monkey noticed us then and lightly traipsed away. He looked no more interested in interacting with us than I was with him. He vanished down the path and into the dusk. My kind of monkey.
“See?” Casey said. “He doesn’t want anything to do with us. I’m sure we’re terrifying to him. We’re giants in comparison.”
“Maybe he’s just going to gather up an army of his friends,” I grumbled, but was secretly glad he’d run away. The last thing I wanted to do this evening was fight monkeys for the fire-leaf. “They’re very social creatures. They travel in groups. Did you know what they call a group of chimpanzees or baboons? Troops. Fucking troops.”
Casey raised an eyebrow but said nothing. We located an appropriate spot for the night and pitched camp as the last few rays of daylight disappeared. There was even a small steam nearby where we were able to take brief, freezing cold baths. Dinner was granola bars and dried fruit, which coincidentally, had also been our lunch. It was better than nothing, but not by much.
“Why do you hate monkeys so much?” Casey asked me as we unrolled our sleeping bags. In the dark, I felt more comfortable with the question. It felt like I could answer her more easily under the cover of night.
I shrugged. “I just don’t like them.”
“But why? There’s got to be a reason. I promise I won’t laugh or judge you.”
For the first time, I actually believed someone who said that to me. Usually when I tried to explain, I got patronizing looks and giggles. Casey honestly just looked interested in the story.
“I’d t
ell you if I could, but the truth is that I don’t quite remember what happened. At least not all of it.”
She was staring at me intently, so I continued.
“I was five. My kindergarten class had taken a field trip to the zoo. We’d looked at most of the good animals already, and we only had the monkeys and the snakes left. They keep those in separate areas in the Philadelphia Zoo. The monkeys are in a big caged area, and the snakes are in this weird little snake house. We were passing through the monkey area when I somehow got separated from my school group and our chaperone. I knew that I was lost, but I didn’t know what to do. So, I just sat down next to the monkey cage.”
“Oh no. Did you see something traumatic?” She looked like she was brainstorming possible monkey-on-monkey violence.
“No. As far as I can remember, it wasn’t what I saw. It was the noises they made. They saw me, and they just went crazy. Screaming and chattering. Banging against their cage. Throwing things. Hooting and crying. It was so awful. I was absolutely terrified. I thought they were going to break free and eat me. There was no one else around, just me and the monkeys. I was afraid to leave that spot, because I knew my teacher would be looking for me, but I was afraid to stay because of the monkeys.”
Casey wrapped her arms around me to comfort me. I felt a bit foolish, but I hugged her back. I was always up for free hugs from her.
“I’m sorry. I can see how that would be very scary for a little boy.” Her voice was sincere.
“I had nightmares about it for years.” I whispered it like it was a shameful secret. “Everyone thought it was stupid that I was afraid of monkeys. But they always really freaked me out after that.”
She hugged me closer. “I’m not surprised. You probably associated the feeling of being lost and helpless with them.”
I shrugged. That was probably a stretch. The truth was simpler. “I think those monkeys wanted to murder me.”
“Maybe they knew you were lost and were trying to get the adults to notice?” As always, Casey was looking for a silver lining.
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. They seemed very… angry. Threatening. I think they wanted to eat me.”
Casey nodded seriously. She lay down on her sleeping bag and I settled in next to her. We were silent for a moment before Casey spoke again.
“But why would they want to eat you? They live in a zoo. They get fed every day.”
“I don’t know. It’s like in Jurassic Park when they feed the dinosaurs the livestock. Remember? The scientist says that T-Rex doesn’t want to be fed, T-Rex wants to hunt.”
“Monkeys aren’t dinosaurs. Most monkeys aren’t even carnivores. Especially carnivores that hunt game larger than them.”
I realized something about Casey just then. “You always give everyone the benefit of the doubt, don’t you? Even people who don’t deserve it. Even animals.”
She shrugged up at the sky. “Do I? I feel like I just try not to think the worst of people.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the same thing. But not everyone deserves your faith in them.”
“I gave you the benefit of the doubt and it seems to have worked out.” She paused. “So far.”
I’d been exhausted, ready to conk out and sleep for ages, but Casey’s dark eyes glittered dangerously in the fading light.
37
Casey
David pushed my still-damp hair back from my shoulder and leaned over to kiss me. He teased my mouth with his tongue, delving deeply against my weak resistance and leaving me breathless and wanton.
Slowly, so slowly, he pulled the straps of my tank top down, tracing my shoulders with his fingers. He tugged the neckline down, exposing my breasts to the cool, night air. My nipples hardened to taut points in an instant as the evening breeze swept over them.
“Outside?” I whispered, feeling foolishly afraid. I felt unexpectedly exposed, despite the fact that it was dark, and we hadn’t seen a soul for many hours.
David laughed a low, rumbling laugh between kisses. “Yes outside. You’ve never made love outside?” He trailed off with a small smile on his face. I shook my head.
“No. Not outside.” I bit my bottom lip. “It feels dirtier somehow, doing it outside.”
His smile was smoldering. “I like dirty,” he whispered in my ear. “Are you embarrassed?” He seemed shocked that I might be.
I shrugged in response.
“Don’t worry,” he said seriously. “I’ll cure you of that inhibition.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but then he was kissing me again and I melted. He played with my chest as we kissed, chipping away at my resistance until it crumbled into nothing. In its place, desire bloomed. I buried my hands in his soft, damp hair, reveling in his attentions. By the time David rolled atop me and lowered his mouth to my nipple, I was lifting my hips in need.
He licked my nipples like he was worshipping them, drawing them into even tighter peaks. It was an exquisite feeling, having him work on me like this. My head lolled back, and I panted up at the stars when his licking turned to greedy sucking. My clit ached for stimulation, but despite the hard length I felt pressed against my leg, he kept toying with me.
I thrust my hips up against his insistently and felt his teeth close over my nipple and his fingers pinch the other. The gentle bite felt exciting and I gasped when he did it again, harder.
“Is there something that you want, Casey?” He teased while he pinched me. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want you,” I breathed.
“You want me to what?”
“I want you to fuck me,” I whispered.
“I’m not sure I heard you,” he said, pinching down harder as I squirmed. “Could you say that a bit louder?”
“I want you to fuck me.” This time I said it in an ordinary tone of voice, not whispering, but not yelling either. Somebody might hear us.
“Better,” David said, pulling back to peel off my pants. His tone was grudging. “But I’ll have you screaming it soon enough.”
I wriggled below him, but he sat up on his heels and turned me over, using his bodyweight to pin me into a prone position. I made a little whiny noise of protest at my helplessness in this position and he swatted my behind playfully.
“You’re so bossy,” he whispered in my ear, catching one wrist, and then the other and holding them behind my back. “Scream that you want me to fuck you and I’ll get right on it.”
I shook my head. Was he nuts? There was no way I’d do that. “What if someone hears us?”
“No one’s going to hear us,” he said soothingly. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. At night. The stream will mask our noise anyway.”
I shook my head again.
Ignoring my frustration, David released my hands, pulled down my shorts, and pushed two fingers between my thighs. He pressed those two fingers against my opening, just enough to slip his first knuckle inside. Then he withdrew. He repeated this again, and again, breaking now and then to rub my clit until I was close to coming before pulling back. This was a game, and I was already losing.
I was panting, facedown beneath him. My body was so wet, and so ready, that screaming that I wanted him to fuck me was beginning to sound a lot less insane.
It was when he started whispering in my ear about how much he needed to fuck me, how wet and tight I was inside, and how hard it was to hold himself back, that I lost it.
“David, fuck me!”
The words ripped through my throat loud enough that I doubted anyone on this island didn’t hear it, but I didn’t care. David’s sigh of relief told me he didn’t either. At this point, I wanted the whole world to hear me if it would end this exquisite teasing.
David was good to his word. He grabbed his hard cock and pushed into me all at once, finally filling me the way I needed. The way we both needed. I made a breathy moan of satisfaction that sounded far more like an animal than me. David made an answering noise, something between a growl and a laugh. He pushed me up to
my knees, freeing me of my prone position, and I rocked back against him urgently, working my legs apart as far as I could and bending my chest toward the ground. Neither one of us had much endurance left. We found a quick, rough, desperate rhythm, seeking relief from the desire that was driving us half insane.
I spiraled into my climax less than a minute after penetration, grasping the slippery nylon sleeping back beneath me as I let go of all my worries and stress in ecstatic release. David came with a low, “fuck, Casey!” a second after, filling me with heat. We collapsed together, sweaty and spent.
“I couldn’t have held out another second. I thought you were going to kill me,” David said after a few minutes. His voice was just above a whisper. I was curled up under his arm and stole a glance at him. He was shaking his head ruefully and staring up at the sky.
I smiled wickedly. I was glad I wasn’t the only one who had to work for my pleasure tonight. “Good. You would have deserved it.”
That earned me another swat on my bottom and we both laughed.
“I love you,” he said seriously, turning to look me in the eye.
“I love you too,” I whispered. I was terrified of admitting it but needing to just as much. After the day we’d just had, the sort of day that came around once in a lifetime, anything less than total honesty seemed like an enormous waste of time. Life was for the living.
38
David
Casey loved me. She said that she loved me. I drifted off to sleep with those words echoing in my mind and had the sweetest dreams I’d ever dreamt. Casey’s soft, sweet voice filled my head with joy and anticipation for the future.
“Wake up sleepy head.” The voice that woke me was not Casey’s. In fact, it wasn’t a woman’s voice at all. Or a pleasant one.
Klaus was standing at the foot of my sleeping bag. He regarded me seriously down the barrel of a pistol—the very pistol that I’d appropriated from the Verité Labs mercenaries the day before. It had been in my pants—the pants that I wasn’t wearing at the moment.
Lost and Found (Scions of Sin Book 4) Page 20